YLEM

This weekend was an important weekend, as I spent most of it dealing with YLEM business. I am now the "Vice President" of YLEM, as well as the membership director, among other things. A few weeks ago, the president, Barbara Lee, quit, and took the trearurer with her. This was a great blow to the organisation, as we were cut down to 3 board members. Since thne, things have progressed well - we are now back up to 5 board members, and everyone seems pretty energetic in getting things done.

The first order of business is to get more rank and file members of the organisation. To facilitate that, we are going to be streamlining the online sign-up system (to use PayPal or something like it) as we are completely revamping the website in general. I've been doing most of the heavy lifting that way, but I don't mind, and everyone likes the work I've done so far. The present website is a disaster - it has a 6 megabyte Flash file on the index page. (!?!?!) If you're on dial-up it makes the site unusable. I'm doing everything in straight-forward HTML, using a much more professional looking design - it's slick, fast, looks nice, is easy to use and maintain, etc.

I'm also making progress on my own website. I hope to have a set of fonts for sale, soon. I hashed out some hard decisions about selling the imaging series I have. That will all be explained on the appropriate pages.

I wish I was getting paid for all of this.

Back from the Shadows Again...

Yesterday we returned from a short vacation in the Lake Tahoe area. We stayed in the town of Truckee at Holiday-Inn-Most-Acceptable. There was a lot of snow on the ground. More than I had seen in years. This vacation was primarily for Beth and Elizabeth. I'm not "against" winter sports, they just don't thrill me. Still, I had a wonderful time, and took a number of pictures. The high point in the snow was skittering down a long hill on a huge inner tube. Big fun. The low point was getting all cocky and running at a hill with a sledding-disk, missing the hill and the disk, and tumbling down the icy incline at a high rate of speed. I didn't break anything, but I'm still stiff and sore...

We had an *excellent* meal at the Cottonwood Restaurant. I highly recommend it. If you go, get a window seat... the view is fantastic, and the food is extremely good. Also: they serve Theakston's Old Peculier, a black Yorky ale. Yum!

I applied for several jobs, again, today. Got a call from Jathan, tons of email. I am putting together some ideas for new music. Also, I am finishing up a few fonts, and hope to have them all available at the website. Yay.

now playing: Deluxe by Harmonia

Thank God It's Friday...

Today, I fixed some links on the website. I expanded the Type section. I puttered about with a synthesizer a friend gave me. It's an EMU Audity 2000. A raver box if ever there was. It's OK, but not that impressive. I've tried to sell it, but so far no takers.

I've come to the conclusion that hardware synths are doomed. Especially after learning about Korg's UberSynth, the Oasys. Apparently the Oasys is going to cost around $8000. Which is about $6000 too much.

Basically, I have concluded that the Keyboard Manufacturers are truly doomed.

Strike that. They are totally SCREWED.

Why? Software.

Software synthesis already outstrips most anything you can do in a keyboard, and at a much lower cost.

Exhibit A:

REASON

I remember back in the ancient 1980s, when my cheezy ass sampler (by todays standards) cost $1750. It was a DSS-1. I still own it. In fact, I liked the DSS-1 so much, I actually bought another one. Now, in Reason, which costs less than $400, you can fill an entire virtual rack with samplers far in excess of what availed me then. I wanted 11 samplers stacked? Sure - in 1987, if I had $25,000 - no problem. In Reason, you simply open up a new blank Rack, and fill it with 11 samplers from the drop-down menu. And when you're done, you simply open up a new file. Back in the day, you'd have to sell all those samplers...
At a loss…

Reason comes with drum machines, samplers, processors, mixers, synthesizers of several different stripes, and on and on.

Second Exhibit: ABLETON LIVE

This, in combination with Reason, offers truly terrifying amounts of musical development and creativity. Recently, Live was upgraded to include MIDI, and a basic drum machine and a sampler, so now it is even more deadly as a combo with Reason. Live is a Loop based compositional system, but with its new MIDI capabilities, it is now a much more powerful beast. It costs about $350, IIRC.

Exhibit Three: Max/MSP

This, in combination with Live and Reason, makes ANYTHING coming out of Korg pretty much superfluous. With Live and Reason, you have composition systems and tonnes of "Gear". With Max/MSP you make your own gear, and it can be just as weird as you want it to be. Max/MSP isn't a synth, it's a software development environment that resembles an evil cross between Visual Basic and tinker-toys. It's available on Mac and (finally) Windows, and it totally freakin’ rocks. If you wondered how freeks like Autechre makes all that jiggety twitchy noise, look no further than: Max/MSP.

So, lets run some totals:

The Oasys is $8000.

I sometimes shop Musicians Friend so my prices are from about a month ago. They aren't the best, or the worst. It's just a data point.

Reason: on sale: $199
Ableton Live: $399
Max/MSP with Jitter (video libraries): $799
Edirol PCRA-30 keyboard with Audio In: $299


And a computer I found at PC MALL - an IBM Thinkpad:

Intel P4, 2.8GHz processor, 256MB RAM, 40GB Hard Drive, CD-RW/DVD Combo drive,15" XGA Display, XP-Pro, etc.

Which has PLENTY of power for audio. And it's on sale for a lousy $1,198.

So, throw in another hundred bucks for a keyboard stand and trivial nonsense and the total is around:

$2900

Which is what? $5000 cheaper than the damned Oasys? Since Max/MSP is for Advanced User GEEKS, and Jitter is even geekier, cut the $799 out and you still have an entire electronic music studio that kicks serious butt for about $2200.

Of course, the Korg Fans will squawk about the DACs in a computer sucking badly. Fine. Procure a Firewire outboard audio DAC. $1000 will suffice, and you're still several thousand dollars ahead of the Oasys.

Now: will your computer system CRASH? Yes, eventually. Will the OASYS? Probably not. If you're worried about that, then get a Powerbook or a Linux Book or whatever-the-hell-book that flips your crank that isn't running Windows. They don't Blue Screen as much as Windows boxen, but there are other issues involved. All in all, unless you're planning to spend your life on stage, you're better off with the computer-based system. Playing computers on stage is an entirely different article, one I would like to write soon.

In a few years you will likely have run through most of what the OASYS does that you find interesting. In a few years... I *shudder* to think what Reason and Live will be like... And if you tire of Live and Reason, there's PLENTY of other software out there to SPARK you into a new creative jag.

Basically Hardware Synth manufactures are doomed. The only ones who will survive are the ones making the uber-geek analogue gear, and they will basically be little more than boutique operations for audio purists. A REASONable fate.

So, anyway - I'll be ultra-busy for the next few days. Look for another installment of SPARK sometime next Wednesday.

HW

Dead Run

I'm at a dead run today. I have three deliverables to meet, and then I go test some software at Orange Design for the next few days. I was up late burning the DVDs and CDRs last night, so I woke up late this morning. E got to school on time and properly equipped, but I feel prety burnt out this AM.

Kyoto went into effect today without the USA on board, of course. I think what's going to happen is we're going to see the business community get on board with the enviro community to pressure the gummint to get on the stick with it - we've already lost our first bid at cheap pollution credits, and they'll only get more expensive over time.

Now playing: CD: From Bone to Satellite, by Tarentel. Awesome record. Especially at 9.15 AM!!!

HW

St Valentines Day

Today I took my valentine to the airport - she has to go to Colorado on business for the week. I miss her already.

This morning I put a number of my old columns from creativesynth.com up in the Words section. They need some work, but it's not so bad. I changed the size of the text from the tiny size I normally use (which is readable and looks cool) to a somewhat larger size, which is more readable in long sittings.

Elizabeth cut a bunch of valentines out for her buddies at school. Tonight is homework, a bath, and then early to bed.

Charles and Terri came by last night - we all had a great time. Dinner consisted of a shrimp cassoulet with tumeric rice and a spinach / walnut / balsamic vinagrette salad. Chocolate cake for dessert and LOTS of wine. A wonder time. We listened to Daniel Lentz, Michael Rother, and Virginia Astley, with solid forays into 5uu's, Univers Zero, and David Bowie.

I might get together with C & T tomorrow for lunch. That would be good fun.

The rest of this afternoon is going to be spent testing Florence, so I can get together with Peter Nyboer and we can finish what we started.

Now playing: Blue Valentines by Tom Waits.

HW

This is just a test.

If this were a real post, you would have been told where to go and what to do.

It seems that a bunch of TV fans have taken out a full page ad in the NY Times to protest the cancellation of Star Trek Enterprise.

The article can be found Here.

What a pack of losers.

I think there are FAR more useful and constructive places the time, money and energy being pissed away on trying to save a mediocre TV series can be spent.

Face it: it's network television. Its fundamental purpose is to keep your attention between commercials. It wasn't doing a very good job of that, so they canned it. It has nothing to do with art. It has everything to do with commerce.

If they could show nothing but TV commercials and keep an audience that way, they would. But they can't - people get bored - so they put dollops of infantile fantasy, emotional pornography, and corporate disinformation masquerading as news to simply keep your attention between the commercials.

The death of Enterprise is just the latest example of this process. It's just a product.

You want space? Here's space:



See how that goes down.

today we were all exhausted. E. woke up in the middle of the night with an earache. It was gone by morning, but our sleep is shot. I'm going to bed right after I post this.

HW

my second entry

I started this after the severed heads list disappeared. I wanted something a little more permanent and a place where people can comment on my ideas and writing. Also, it fulfills something people have been on my shit for years about. Now, all I need to do is write my autobiography, and my obligations to society will be complete.

For those of you who don't know me, go to http://www.kether.com/bio/

There's a picture there and everything. It's a little old, but the only difference is I weigh about 15lbs more and have less hair on top and more in back.

Right now, Beth is collecting Elizabeth from school. We will have dinner and then it is off to Friday Swimming Lessons. Our ritual goes like this: I whip up a quick dinner, and then we scoot down to les petite baleen, where E. takes lessons. After that we go to a gas station where she buys a small donut or some juice, I buy some nuts, and then we drive to the video store. Our friends, Charles and Terri are visiting us this weekend, so I doubt that Beth and I will rent anything, but Elizabeth invariably does - usually a disney flick or ScoobyDoo or something equally amenable to a sweet little seven-year-old girl's heart. Then she gets to stay up late and watch her movie.

Tomorrow we await C&T's call so we can arrange to meet on Sunday. I used to work with Charles at Macromedia in Tech Support. He moved to Seattle and met Terri there. We are fond of Terri - she's extremely fine people.

Today's Frustrations:

Not enough sleep.
Bush is still President.

Today's Elations:

Carly is still no longer running the ship at HP. Beth works at HP, and neither of us were keen on them hiring Carly...

My work is on exhibit at The Coyote Point Environmental Museum. Yay!

I realise this is total newbie blogger stuff, but I am just so happy to be able to do this -

what I am listening to right now:

a really nice mix CD! The tunes:

Song - Artist - CD/LP

As We Could Ever - His Name is Alive - Livonia
Loving The Alien - Iva Davies & Icehouse - Berlin Tapes
Wild Is The Wind - David Bowie - Station To Station
Sister Europe - Iva Davies & Icehouse - Berlin Tapes
Harlem Nocturne - Danny Gatton - Cruisin' Dueces
All The Way - Iva Davies & Icehouse - The Berlin Tapes
Ne Me Quitte Pas - Jacques Brel - Best Of Vol. 1
for myself - Nina Simone - After Hours
Remember A Day - Pink Floyd - A Saucerful Of Secrets
Cuts You Up - Peter Murphy - Deep
Southern Jukebox Music - Penguin Cafe Orchestra - Concert Program
Love Is Everything (Harmony Version) - Jane Siberry - When I Was A Boy
Svefn G Englar - Sigur Rós - Ágætis Byrjun
Alma - Phil Manzanera - Diamond Head

A very sentimental CD, that suits my mood right now.

Well, happy weekend everybody! you can expect "heavier" posts in the future. I'm just starting it out fun, because, well, it's been a rough week and I deserve some fun. Dammit!

love,

HW

My First Blog Entry

I'm starting a real honest to goodness blog. Yep. finally got off my ass and did it, using a system from blogger.com. This post will let me see if it works or not. This blog is called SPARK, after a column I had on CreativeSynth.com, which was more of an essay based thing.

I'm actually kind of nervous about this. Here Goes!!!

HW